ENGLAND manager Sven-Goran has insisted his decision to change the team's 4-5-1 formation, such a flop in Belfast, was not down to player power.

Eriksson maintained that he has not totally abandoned playing a lone striker, although Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney are expected to be paired in attack for the World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Poland next month.

And he stressed that the decision had nothing to do with captain David Beckham, said to be bitterly unhappy at his deep central role, or rifts in the dressing room.

"I have lost the players? There is no chance," Eriksson said. "Of course if you lose to Northern Ireland and play as badly as we did, everything is wrong - the players and the tactics.

"We played 4-5-1 in Belfast partly because some of the players were not 100 per cent. It's all history now. What I do know is that some of those players, three weeks later, are now playing much better for their clubs.

"I've not abandoned the single striker. We can play that way. I thought it was necessary against Ireland. But I prefer 4-4-2 and so do the players."

He insisted that Beckham's input had no bearing on his decisions. "He is handled in the same way as all the other players," Eriksson added. "The only difference is I talk more to him than others because he's the captain.

"No player, captain or otherwise, has influence on which team I pick or what tactics I use. That's between me and my coaching staff."